Apostolic Internship

Most quality learning involves doing. You wouldn’t want a surgeon who had been trained in the classroom, but had never actually performed an operation. Jesus’ training of His disciples involved instruction, observation (of His ministry as the Great Physician), and then He sent them out to carry on His work.

As His ministry in Galilee is coming to a close, Jesus commissions His disciples to extend His ministry by going throughout the region preaching the gospel and healing the sick. He instructs them to travel light and warns them that they will face rejection from some of their hearers. While there are some aspects of their mission which are unique, there are many ongoing principles which apply to His followers today.

Jesus is the Hope of the Hopeless

As baseball season is upon us a true fan will tell you that there is nothing better than a double-header – two games in the same day for one admission price.

This Sunday we resume our series through the Gospel of Luke as we will enjoy a double-header of miracles. As Jesus is on his way to help a sick twelve-year-old girl He is interrupted by a woman who has suffered from an embarrassing and debilitating illness for twelve years. By the time He heals the woman the girl has died, so Jesus raises her from the dead.

These miracles are the last in a sequence of four which began with the calming of the sea which was followed by the casting out of the legion of demons. Each of these miracles reveals Jesus’ power and control over the forces of evil which He has come to conquer by His work on the cross. Because of Him we have hope, no matter how hopeless our situation may seem.

One distinguishing feature of these two miracles is that they emphasize that we gain a connection with Jesus’ saving power through faith.

Run With Endurance

This week I am preaching from Hebrews 12:1-3 in which Paul uses the illustration of a running race to encourage us to endure in our faith, not allowing anything to slow us down. This passage reminded me of the Parable of the Soils which we covered recently in Luke, in that it is those who endure through the trials and temptations of life who bear fruit. My heart has been broken when people whom I dearly love have failed to endure. There is hope for some who have stumbled and can get up and rejoin the race. Others appear to have dropped out of altogether. May God give us grace to run with endurance the race God has set before us as we look to Jesus Who is both our example and our goal.

Jesus’ Hour of Crisis

The Lord’s Protective Care

Text: Psalm 16Speaker: Brian OnsteadDate: March 8, 2015

In this sermon we’ll be looking at the Lord’s protective care for us in Psalm 16. We’ll see that his protective care for us is primarily with regards to spiritual matters and not physical ones. The greatest assurance we have of his care for us is seen in his death and resurrection.

WHY?

Many of us attended the memorial service for Logan Kubiak who died of leukemia just after his fifth birthday. Some of us are facing other significant trials in our lives. We often want to ask, “Why?” “Why did God allow this to happen to me (or to them).

This question is addressed in John 9 when Jesus’ disciples ask him why a man had been born blind. Their premise was that someone must have done something wrong – either the man or his parents. Jesus refutes their false reasoning and explains that the man’s blindness was not due to personal sin, but was for the glory of God.

Because we live in a fallen world, tragedies happen. People today continue to wrongly believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people (karma). Believers recognize that God is at work even in our suffering.

Jesus came into the world to reverse the effects of the curse. His healing of the blind man is a sign of the work He has come to do. Where Jesus is present the curse is reversed. His first coming was a partial and temporary intrusion of God’s kingdom on the earth. When he comes again there will be no more curse – no more blindness, no more leukemia, no more death and no more tears.